Preparing Your Home & Your Family Before A Storm
In an effort to make sure your family and your home is best prepared ahead of a storm, we want to share this helpful information that we have used throughout our years living on the coast! Having lost our home in Ike and surviving a complete remodel after Harvey, we have personal knowledge of the impacts these systems can have on your home and your family.
A quick overview of our Harvey journey:
As another wave forms that we all need to keep our eyes on, here’s a few quick links that we have found most helpful:
Pages and websites we follow for information:
Eric Berger, formally the weather guy for the Chronicle, has a no-hype approach and a very good track record of forecasting all Houston weather and it’s impacts: https://www.facebook.com/spacecityweather/?ref=br_rs
Mike’s Weather Page is a Hurricane tracker out of Florida that has a keen sense of what these systems are going to do and is usually more accurate than the spaghetti models website he became known for (he also NEVER panics): https://www.facebook.com/mikesweatherpage/
Also, as a reminder, make sure you are following your local “Emergency Management” page. Simply go to Facebook and type in them name of your city with “Emergency Management” behind it and it should pull up. These are your best source for information specific to the City in which you reside.
Ensure you are signed up for your City’s emergency notification system. All cities have one. Email us back with your cell phone numbers, address, and city if you’d like us to register you with your local municipality. These notifications can provide important updates before, during, and after a weather event.
Apps we like:
If you are a nervous nelly this app is for you. You can check in on it anytime while you wait on the above pages to post updates: http://www.hurrtracker.com/Main/home.html it’s well worth the investment. It also provides push notification updates on when storms form and are upgraded.
If you were impacted by Harvey’s flooding, one thing that most families scrambled to produce was an accurate home inventory to provide insurance with. Don’t get caught in the aftermath of a storm trying to manage this. Use an app like: https://www.allianz.com.au/home-insurance/news/home-contents-inventory-apps to take photos and information. It is suggested you update your inventory every year to ensure you have it all up to date. If this is something you would like our help with, we have admin staff that can assist.
Print these out for quick reference:
While it looks like our neighbors to our East will be the one’s in need of this advice as Gordon forms in the Gulf, it is never too early to take a look around your home and ensure all of the following are things you have considered and have solutions for in the event that a storm or major rain maker sets its sights on Galveston County. As a reminder, Seahouse Construction can come by your home to evaluate any of the items below and give you an estimate if repairs or work needs to be done to further protect your home:
Take time each year to make sure your insurance policy will cover the full cost of rebuilding if you lose your home in a storm.
Survey your home and tally your possessions each year, so you know exactly what you need to replace and how much it's worth. (see app mentioned above)
Inspect your roof covering to make sure all the shingles or tiles are secured and that none are cracked or missing.
If you can access your roof via an attic, double check to ensure that your roof is properly tied down with metal straps. If it is not, call us immediately.
Check the seals around your windows and doors. Normal weather -- especially in hot climates -- can damage seals over time, allowing sideways-blowing rain to get in during a storm.
Anywhere you have cable or other electrical wires coming into the side of your house, the utility company has punched a hole through the exterior wall. You can seal these holes to prevent water from getting in using caulk you can buy for a few dollars at most home-improvement stores.
If a storm with high winds is expected, take a look around your yard and make sure you're not creating missiles by leaving things lying around. Any items that can be picked up by strong winds -- your grill, lawn furniture, garden gnomes and other items -- should be stored indoors or secured to the ground.
Garage doors often blow in, and if you have an attic above that, they can also blow up and literally tear your house apart. You can strengthen your existing garage door by installing a vertical garage door brace and reinforcing it with horizontal wooden beams
With all systems that threaten Galveston County, flooding is always a major concern. Here’s a few tips that you can use year-round to keep your home prepared for floodwaters:
Create a checklist for “things to do in case of flooding” and attach it to your refrigerator or someplace easy to access in case of flooding.
Disconnect appliances to prevent electrical shock when power is restored
Turn off all electrical power at the main breaker boxes as well at each appliance
Turn off all gas at the main line.
Turn off all water at the main line. Pipes inside the house can burst during a flood. Leaving your water on can only make flooding worse.
Lift anything of value to you and your family members as high off the ground as possible. On top of beds, heavy dressers, closet shelves, attics.
Store cinder-blocks in the garage and place your furniture on them to help keep it out of any standing water.
For drains, toilets, and other sewer connections, install backflow valves or plugs to prevent floodwaters from entering.
During a flood sewer and storm drains can back up and force sewage into your washing machines, bathtubs, sinks, and dishwashers, which can then overflow onto your floors. Cleanup after a flood is nasty enough without having to clean all your appliances and rooms of sewage and storm water.
Have a licensed electrician raise electric components (switches, sockets, circuit breakers, and wiring) at least 12″ above your home’s projected flood elevation.
Not only will this prevent electrocution in case of a flood, it will protect expensive components from water damage.
Buy and learn how to properly use sandbags, plastic liners and sheets.
Sand bags, even when properly employed, don’t keep all the water out of your home. However, they can reduce and redirect water flow to prevent water from seeping into sliding glass doors or windows at ground level. You’ll need to buy sand or use soil to use them. There are also systems for homes and businesses, like MuscleWall or QuickDam, that will protect your home from heavy water flow. They’re expensive but effective.
With the average flood damage ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 (much more with systems like Harvey, our home for example was $100k and we only had 4” of water) it just makes sense to spend a few hundred, or even a couple of thousand dollars to protect your home. As we near the 10 year anniversary of Ike, it’s a good reminder that it only takes one. Let us help you and your family prepare! Call Bruce at 409-789-9171 to talk more about what we can do to help.
Until a system gets closer,
Bruce Fortin
Owner
SHC Customs
409-789-9171 cell